A British IT worker, Mohammed Umar Taj, aged 31, has been sentenced to seven months and 14 days in prison after he sabotaged his employer’s network in retaliation for being suspended from his job in Huddersfield, UK. The sentencing took place at Leeds Crown Court in late June 2025.
Incident Details
The attack occurred just hours after Taj was suspended in July 2022. Despite his suspension, the company did not immediately revoke his privileged network access.
Taj physically accessed the company premises and used his credentials to alter login names and passwords, change multi-factor authentication (MFA) settings, and lock out his employer and their clients in the UK, Germany, and Bahrain from critical systems. The disruption caused an estimated £200,000 (about $274,000) in lost business and significant reputational harm to the company and its clients.
Investigation and Evidence
The West Yorkshire Police’s Cyber Crime Team recovered evidence from Taj’s phone, including recordings of his activities and conversations in which he discussed the attack. Taj admitted to one charge: committing unauthorized acts with intent to impair the operation of or hinder access to a computer.
